The Ocean of Theosophy by William Q. Judge

Body and Astral Body

The body, as a mass of flesh, bones, muscles, nerves, brain matter, bile, mucous,
blood, and skin is an object of exclusive care for too many people, who make
it their god because they have come to identify themselves with it, meaning
it only when they say "I." Left to itself it is devoid of sense, and acts in
such a case solely by reflex and automatic action. This we see in sleep, for
then the body assumes attitudes and makes motions which the waking man does
not permit. It is like mother earth in that it is made up of a number of infinitesimal
"lives." Each of these lives is a sensitive point. Not only are there microbes,
bacilli, and bacteria, but these are composed of others, and those others of
still more minute lives. These lives are not the cells of the body, but make
up the cells, keeping ever within the limits assigned by evolution to the cell.
They are forever whirling and moving together throughout the whole body, being
in certain apparently void spaces as well as where flesh, membrane, bones, and
blood are seen. They extend, too, beyond the actual outer limits of the body
to a measurable distance.

One of the mysteries of physical life is hidden among these "lives." Their action,
forced forward by the Life energy — called Prana or Jiva —
will explain active existence and physical death. They are divided into two
classes, one the destroyers, the other the preservers, and these two war upon
each other from birth until the destroyers win. In this struggle the Life Energy
itself ends the contest because it is life that kills. This may seem heterodox,
but in Theosophical philosophy it is held to be the fact. For, it is said, the
infant lives because the combination of healthy organs is able to absorb the
life all around it in space, and is put to sleep each day by the overpowering
strength of the stream of life, since the preservers among the cells of the
youthful body are not yet mastered by the other class. These processes of going
to sleep and waking again are simply and solely the restoring of the equilibrium
in sleep and the action produced by disturbing it when awake. It may be compared
with the arc-electric light wherein the brilliant arc of light at the point
of resistance is the symbol of the waking active man. So in sleep we are again
absorbing and not resisting the Life Energy; when we wake we are throwing it
off. But as it exists around us like an ocean in which we swim, our power to
throw it off is necessarily limited. Just when we wake we are in equilibrium
as to our organs and life; when we fall asleep we are yet more full of life
than in the morning; it has exhausted us; it finally kills the body. Such a
contest could not be waged forever, since the whole solar system's weight of
life is pitted against the power to resist focussed in one small human frame.

The body is considered by the Masters of Wisdom to be the most transitory, impermanent,
and illusionary of the whole series of constituents in man. Not for a moment
is it the same. Ever changing, in motion in every part, it is in fact never
complete or finished though tangible. The ancients clearly perceived this, for
they elaborated a doctrine called Nitya Pralaya, or the continual change in
material things, the continual destruction. This is known now to science in
the doctrine that the body undergoes a complete alteration and renovation every
seven years. At the end of the first seven years it is not the same body it
was in the beginning. At the end of our days it has changed seven times, perhaps
more. And yet it presents the same general appearance from maturity until death;
and it is a human form from birth to maturity. This is a mystery science explains
not; it is a question pertaining to the cell and to the means whereby the general
human shape is preserved.

The "cell" is an illusion. It is merely a word. It has no existence as a material
thing, for any cell is composed of other cells. What, then, is a cell? It is
the ideal form within which the actual physical atoms — made up of the "lives"
— arrange themselves. As it is admitted that the physical molecules are forever
rushing away from the body, they must be leaving the cells each moment. Hence
there is no physical cell, but the privative limits of one, the ideal walls
and general shape. The molecules assume position within the ideal shape according
to the laws of nature, and leave it again almost at once to give place to other
atoms. And as it is thus with the body, so is it with the earth and with the
solar system. Thus also is it, though in slower measure, with all material objects.
They are all in constant motion and change. This is modern and also ancient
wisdom. This is the physical explanation of clairvoyance, clairaudience, telepathy,
and mind-reading. It helps to show us what a deluding and unsatisfactory thing
our body is.

Although, strictly speaking, the second constituent of man is the Astral Body
— called in Sanskrit Linga Sarira — we will consider Life Energy —
or Prana and Jiva in Sanskrit — together, because to our observation
the phenomenon of life is more plainly exhibited in connection with the body.

Life is not the result of the operation of the organs, nor is it gone when the
body dissolves. It is a universally pervasive principle. It is the ocean in
which the earth floats; it permeates the globe and every being and object on
it. It works unceasingly on and around us, pulsating against and through us
forever. When we occupy a body we merely use a more specialized instrument than
any other for dealing with both Prana and Jiva. Strictly speaking,
Prana is breath; and as breath is necessary for continuance of life in the human
machine, that is the better word. Jiva means "life," and also is applied to
the living soul, for the life in general is derived from the Supreme Life itself.
Jiva is therefore capable of general application, whereas Prana
is more particular. It cannot be said that one has a definite amount of this
Life Energy which will fly back to its source should the body be burned, but
rather that it works with whatever be the mass of matter in it. We, as it were,
secrete or use it as we live. For whether we are alive or dead, life-energy
is still there; in life among our organs sustaining them, in death among the
innumerable creatures that arise from our destruction. We can no more do away
with this life than we can erase the air in which the bird floats, and like
the air it fills all the spaces on the planet, so that nowhere can we lose the
benefit of it nor escape its final crushing power. But in working upon the physical
body this life — Prana — needs a vehicle, means, or guide, and this
vehicle is the astral body.

There are many names for the Astral Body. Here are a few: Linga Sarira,
Sanskrit, meaning design body, and the best one of all; ethereal double; phantom;
wraith; apparition; doppelganger; personal man; perisprit; irrational soul;
animal soul; Bhuta; elementary; spook; devil; demon. Some of these
apply only to the astral body when devoid of the corpus after death. Bhuta,
devil, and elementary are nearly synonymous; the first Sanskrit, the other English.
With the Hindus the Bhuta is the Astral Body when it is by death released
from the body and the mind; and being thus separated from conscience, is a devil
in their estimation. They are not far wrong, if we abolish the old notion that
a devil is an angel fallen from heaven, for this bodily devil is something which
rises from the earth.

It may be objected that the term Astral Body is not the right one for this purpose.
The objection is one which arises from the nature and genesis of the English
language, for as that has grown up in a struggle with nature and among a commercial
people it has not as yet coined the words needed for designating the great range
of faculties and organs of the unseen man. And as its philosophers have not
admitted the existence of these inner organs, the right terms do not exist in
the language. So in looking for words to describe the inner body the only ones
found in English were the "astral body." This term comes near to the real fact,
since the substance of this form is derived from cosmic matter or star matter,
roughly speaking. But the old Sanskrit word describes it exactly — Linga
Sarira, the design body — because it is the design or model for the physical
body. This is better than "ethereal body," as the latter might be said to be
subsequent to the physical, whereas in fact the astral body precedes the material
one.

The astral body is made of matter of very fine texture as compared with the visible
body, and has a great tensile strength, so that it changes but little during
a lifetime, while the physical alters every moment. And not only has it this
immense strength, but at the same time possesses an elasticity permitting its
extension to a considerable distance. It is flexible, plastic, extensible, and
strong. The matter of which it is composed is electrical and magnetic in its
essence, and is just what the whole world was composed of in the dim past when
the processes of evolution had not yet arrived at the point of producing the
material body for man. But it is not raw or crude matter. Having been through
a vast period of evolution and undergone purifying processes of an incalculable
number, its nature has been refined to a degree far beyond the gross physical
elements we see and touch with the physical eye and hand.

The astral body is the guiding model for the physical one, and all the other
kingdoms have the same astral model. Vegetables, minerals, and animals have
the ethereal double, and this theory is the only one which will answer the question
how it is that the seed produces its own kind and all sentient beings bring
forth their like. Biologists can only say that the facts are as we know them,
but can give no reason why the acorn will never grow anything but an oak except
that no man ever knew it to be otherwise. But in the old schools of the past
the true doctrine was known, and it has been once again brought out in the West
through the efforts of H. P. Blavatsky and those who have found inspiration
in her works.

This doctrine is, that in early times of the evolution of this globe the various
kingdoms of nature are outlined in plan or ideal form first, and then the astral
matter begins to work on this plan with the aid of the Life principle, until
after long ages the astral human form is evolved and perfected. This is, then,
the first form that the human race had, and corresponds in a way with the allegory
of man's state in the garden of Eden. After another long period, during which
the cycle of further descent into matter is rolling forward, the astral form
at last clothes itself with a "coat of skin," and the present physical form
is on the scene. This is the explanation of the verse of the book of Genesis
which describes the giving of coats of skin to Adam and Eve. It is the final
fall into matter, for from that point on the man within strives to raise the
whole mass of physical substance up to a higher level, and to inform it all
with a larger measure of spiritual influence, so that it may be ready to go
still further on during the next great period of evolution after the present
one is ended. So at the present time the model for the growing child in the
womb is the astral body already perfect in shape before the child is born. It
is on this the molecules arrange themselves until the child is complete, and
the presence of the ethereal design-body will explain how the form grows into
shape, how the eyes push themselves out from within to the surface of the face,
and many other mysterious matters in embryology which are passed over by medical
men with a description but with no explanation. This will also explain, as nothing
else can, the cases of marking of the child in the womb sometimes denied by
physicians but well-known by those who care to watch, to be a fact of frequent
occurrence. The growing physical form is subject to the astral model; it is
connected with the imagination of the mother by physical and psychical organs;
the mother makes a strong picture from horror, fear, or otherwise, and the astral
model is then similarly affected. In the case of marking by being born legless,
the ideas and strong imagination of the mother act so as to cut off or shrivel
up the astral leg, and the result is that the molecules, having no model of
leg to work on, make no physical leg whatever; and similarly in all such cases.
But where we find a man who still feels the leg which the surgeon has cut off,
or perceives the fingers that were amputated, then the astral member has not
been interfered with, and hence the man feels as if it were still on his person.
For knife or acid will not injure the astral model, but in the first stages
of its growth ideas and imagination have the power of acid and sharpened steel.

In the ordinary man who has not been trained in practical occultism or who has
not the faculty by birth, the astral body cannot go more than a few feet from
the physical one. It is a part of that physical, it sustains it and is incorporated
in it just as the fibers of the mango are all through that fruit. But there
are those who, by reason of practices pursued in former lives on the earth,
have a power born with them of unconsciously sending out the astral body. These
are mediums, some seers, and many hysterical, cataleptic, and scrofulous people.
Those who have trained themselves by a long course of excessively hard discipline
which reaches to the moral and mental nature and quite beyond the power of the
average man of the day, can use the astral form at will, for they have gotten
completely over the delusion that the physical body is a permanent part of them,
and, besides, they have learned the chemical and electrical laws governing in
this matter. In their case they act with knowledge and consciously; in the other
cases the act is done without power to prevent it, or to bring it about at will,
or to avoid the risks attendant on such use of potencies in nature of a high
character.

The astral body has in it the real organs of the outer sense organs. In it are
the sight, hearing, power to smell, and the sense of touch. It has a complete
system of nerves and arteries of its own for the conveyance of the astral fluid
which is to that body as our blood is to the physical. It is the real personal
man. There are located the subconscious perception and the latent memory, which
the hypnotizers of the day are dealing with and being baffled by. So when the
body dies the astral man is released, and as at death the immortal man — the
Triad — flies away to another state, the astral becomes a shell of the once
living man and requires time to dissipate. It retains all the memories of the
life lived by the man, and thus reflexly and automatically can repeat what the
dead man knew, said, thought, and saw. It remains near the deserted physical
body nearly all the time until that is completely dissipated, for it has to
go through its own process of dying. It may become visible under certain conditions.
It is the spook of the spiritualistic seance-rooms, and is there made to masquerade
as the real spirit of this or that individual. Attracted by the thoughts of
the medium and the sitters, it vaguely flutters where they are, and then is
galvanized into a factitious life by a whole host of elemental forces and by
the active astral body of the medium who is holding the seance or of any other
medium in the audience. From it (as from a photograph) are then reflected into
the medium's brain all the boasted evidences which spiritualists claim go to
prove identity of deceased friend or relative. These evidences are accepted
as proof that the spirit of the deceased is present, because neither mediums
nor sitters are acquainted with the laws governing their own nature, nor with
the constitution, power, and function of astral matter and astral man.

The Theosophical philosophy does not deny the facts proven in spiritualistic
seances, but it gives an explanation of them wholly opposed to that of the spiritualists.
And surely the utter absence of any logical scientific explanation by these
so-called spirits of the phenomena they are said to produce supports the contention
that they have no knowledge to impart. They can merely cause certain phenomena;
the examination of those and deductions therefrom can only be properly carried
on by a trained brain guided by a living trinity of spirit, soul, and mind.
And here another class of spiritualistic phenomena requires brief notice. That
is the appearance of what is called a "materialized spirit."

Three explanations are offered: First, that the astral body of the living
medium detaches itself from its corpus and assumes the appearance of the so-called
spirit; for one of the properties of the astral matter is capacity to reflect
an image existing unseen in ether. Second, the actual astral shell
of the deceased — wholly devoid of his or her spirit and conscience — becomes
visible and tangible when the condition of air and ether is such as to so alter
the vibration of the molecules of the astral shell that it may become visible.
The phenomena of density and apparent weight are explained by other laws.
Third, an unseen mass of electrical and magnetic matter is collected,
and upon it is reflected out of the astral light a picture of any desired person
either dead or living. This is taken to be the "spirit" of such persons, but
it is not, and has been justly called by H. P. Blavatsky a "psychological fraud,"
because it pretends to be what it is not. And, strange to say, this very explanation
of materializations has been given by a "spirit" at a regular seance, but has
never been accepted by the spiritualists just because it upsets their notion
of the return of the spirits of deceased persons.

Finally, the astral body will explain nearly all the strange psychical things
happening in daily life and in dealings with genuine mediums; it shows what
an apparition may be and the possibility of such being seen, and thus prevents
the scientific doubter from violating good sense by asserting you did not see
what you know you have seen; it removes superstition by showing the real nature
of these phenomena, and destroys the unreasonable fear of the unknown which
makes a man afraid to see a "ghost." By it also we can explain the apportation
of objects without physical contact, for the astral hand may be extruded and
made to take hold of an object, drawing it in toward the body. When this is
shown to be possible, then travelers will not be laughed at who tell of seeing
the Hindu yogee make coffee cups fly through the air and distant objects approach
apparently of their own accord untouched by him or anyone else. All the instances
of clairvoyance and clairaudience are to be explained also by the astral body
and astral light. The astral — which are the real — organs do the seeing and
the hearing, and as all material objects are constantly in motion among their
own atoms the astral sight and hearing are not impeded, but work at a distance
as great as the extension of the astral light or matter around and about the
earth. Thus it was that the great seer Swedenborg saw houses burning in the
city of Stockholm when he was at another city many miles off, and by the same
means any clairvoyant of the day sees and hears at a distance.